310 THROUGH A PARISH COUNCIL 



be seen in the case of the Parish Councils of 

 Belbroughton, near Birmingham, and in the case 

 of the Small Holdings Association on Lord Car- 

 rington's land in Lincolnshire. 



Part of the land held by the Belbroughton 

 Parish Council is a farm of 35 acres, on which 

 the former tenant had failed to pay any rent for 

 two years, and had got the land into very bad 

 condition. The Council have taken it on a yearly 

 tenancy, on the understanding that they will not 

 be disturbed during the present owner's lifetime. 

 They pay a higher rent than that at which the 

 farm was originally let, and have repaired all the 

 hedges, gates, and fencing out of the fund obtained 

 by subletting it to the twenty tenants at a slightly 

 higher rent, paid in advance, than that which the 

 landowner receives. The land is already in a very 

 much better state of cultivation. By this arrange- 

 ment it will be noticed that the landowner runs no 

 risk, the Council as a body being responsible for 

 the rent ; that he has no more trouble than if the 

 land was let to one farmer ; and that, considering 

 the bad state in which the farm was taken over, far 

 more has been done in the way of repairs than 

 could have been expected of a new incoming 

 tenant farmer. 



The Lincolnshire Small Holdings Association 

 leases two farms, of 250 and 265 acres respectively, 

 from Lord Carrington, in the neighbourhood of 

 Spalding. Some isolated fields bring the total 

 acreage hired in this way up to 650, on which 



